The international community begins to talk and pay more attention to genocides and other mass crimes when they are already established facts, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at the 5th Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide in Yerevan.
“We witnessed this in our region not only in the case of the Armenian Genocide about 110 years ago, but also literally last year, when it seemed it was clear to the world that there were sufficient risk factors that could lead to irreversible consequences,” Minister Mirzoyan said.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to prevent it, and today we are witnessing its irreversible consequences. This is one of the examples when the response of international structures was not equivalent to the risk factors and the situation on the ground. And the most significant of the mentioned risk factors, the spread of hatred, eventually turned from hate speech into a crime,” the Foreign Minister stated.
“The example I gave about the Armenians applies to the circumstances and causes of all other genocides and mass crimes, since the foundations, impulses and risk factors of this crime are the same,” he added.
The Armenian Foreign Minister emphasized that the situation in the world and the dangerous trends of genocidal risks should force us to find more effective ways to save people’s lives, the heavy bureaucratic machine should become more sensitive and flexible, not only in terms of providing an effective response, but also in terms of showing equal treatment to everyone.
“Ensuring the protection of national, racial, ethnic groups should continue to be the focus of attention of the international human rights system. At the same time, it is clear that the only guarantee of success in this regard is close international cooperation, including between UN structures, regional organizations, member states, non-governmental organizations, and other actors. Ensuring this cooperation has long become a shared responsibility, in which both the UN Security Council members involved in the decision-making process and major regional actors, as well as small states that have an impact on the situation on the ground and often take a pioneering role in promoting the prevention agenda, have their own unique role,” Minister Mirzoyan said.
